17th Century Art Writing TaskJan Vermeer's career spanned a century of great changes in art, technology, and social customs. In art, the subject has ceased to be the most important element of great paintings. This allowed artists to discover how to appreciate and represent the pure beauty of the world. One of the greatest of these masters was Jan Vermeer, born a generation after Rembrandt. Vermeer did not paint many paintings during his life and few of them depict significant scenes. Specializing in genre paintings (subjects of everyday life), he mainly painted ordinary figures engaged in ordinary tasks, such as a lady reading a letter or a young lady playing the lute. Yet what made these paintings such masterpieces was the way Vermeer achieved meticulous precision in the presentation of textures, light and color without the paintings ever appearing artificial or hard. During his life, Vermeer painted in two distinct styles: the first style (from 1653 -1664) is characterized by a brilliant use of color and an aggressive painting technique, while the second style is softer and refined with pale and softer colors. In other words, his style evolved from one characterized by a more masculine vigor to one of delicate, refined subtlety. What remained in both styles was its exquisite combination of color and precision that harmonized figures and space. Johannes Vermeer was born in Delft, Holland, in 1632. In his youth he was apprenticed to Carl Fabritus and in 1653 he entered the Guild of Saint Luke of Delft where he became director. Although art was his main activity, he was also an innkeeper and ran a tavern in the market square. This neighborhood was a very noisy place to live and work, and Vermeer apparently liked to paint to escape the crowded market and noisy tavern. Many historians are still not sure where all his paintings went, but some say he was hired by Van Ruijven, a wealthy liberal Protestant, who was the master of Delft's charity commissioners. Due to slow production, he suffered financial difficulties despite the successful sales of his works and died in 1675, at the age of 43, leaving his wife and eight children in abject poverty. The Procuress was painted in 1656 and is a good example of Vermeer's early style. This scene is painted with a remarkable force of color and light around the soldier and the woman who obviously occupy the front of the stage..